Whenever I have friends over during my cooking adventures (which has historically been all but maybe three times), I have wondered if things would go smoother without them. This is not to say that they serve as poor soux chefs, but rather we get caught up in conversation and get a bit clumsy. Well, I cooked by myself last week and can tell you that is certainly not the case.
It all began when I left work. Whatever recipes I had running through my head were quickly swept away when I got easily distracted by a farmer's market at South Station and picked up an adorable 3-pound pumpkin. This pumpkin purchase was inspired by an excellent fellow cooker blog post I recently found on how to make pumpkin purée. Once I found this blog post, I think I was nervous about how it would turn out and thusly didn't do much research on the recipes involving the purée. In hindsight, this was a key ingredient to my frustration.
I tried to get most of my pumpkin-cooking ingredients at Target that night. I really didn't know what recipes I was following, so I picked up a few logical items - milk and condensed milk, cloves, and graham cracker pie crusts. I couldn't have bought eggs at Target because the food section is subpar. Only at 9:00PM did I discover, after many moments hunched over my iPad searching for "pumpkin pie no eggs recipes", that eggs are a key ingredient to making any cakey dessert taste divine. So there was my frustration for the night.
I've really got to get better at taking pictures while cooking, as I only remembered to take pictures of the purée portion of the night. As you may find out someday, making pumpkin purée is not any sort of risky business whatsoever, and is actually quite simple with the aid of a trusty blender. I quartered the pumpkin, degunked it, and put the quarters on a baking tray in the oven for 45 minutes. I was able to get some euphonium practicing in those 45 minutes (!!! must be really playing some hard music in Northeastern Concert Band this year, I think the last time I practiced music for an ensemble was for The Cadets). Once out of the oven, the skin could be removed easily with a knife. I then quartered the "meat" and blendered (that's a verb now) it with some water. Simple and fruitful! Ended up with about 6 cups of purée.
There wasn't much to the pie or the brownies, my bouts with baking have so far been simple, but I know that will change when I try a more complex recipe, like fudge or flan.
Side note: I have recently realized that unless I put the time (and dough into a nice camera) into creating a blog like Annie's eats or The Pioneer Woman, it is doubtful that this blog will ever be internet-famous. At this point I am writing for my own entertainment, and if that gets me recognition by Smitten Kitchen, that's an even bigger win in my book!
'Til next time, little chefs!
No comments:
Post a Comment